The Stonybrook Capital and Weild & Co. North American Insurance Composite showed a notable increase of 1.5% during the week of February 16th-23rd, maintaining its record setting performance from the preceding week (Feb 9th-16th), which saw a rise of 2.1%.
Throughout the week, the Composite nearly outperformed all major indices, coming close behind the S&P 500. Year to date, it has seen a solid increase of 10.8%.
Stonybrook’s analysis of the figures indicates that advancers outnumbered decliners by 71 to 37. Nine out of the 11 industry groups advanced, mirroring the previous week’s count, although with variations in the specific groups.
The top-performing groups were Coastal Insurers, showing growth of 7%, and Global P&C Insurers, with a rise of 2.8%.
The two poorest performers were Title Insurers, experiencing a decline of 3.4%, and Micro Cap Insurers, with a decrease of 0.2%.
In the previous week, Stonybrook noted that large-cap indices all declined following an unexpected negative inflation report.
However, the subsequent week witnessed a turnaround, with large-cap stocks experiencing a surge. For instance, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 1.3% on the week (up 3.8% YTD), while the market-cap-weighted indices of the S&P were up by 1.7% (up 6.7% YTD) and the NASDAQ 100 by 1.4% (up 6.6% YTD).
Stonybrook emphasises, “It was a market led again by big tech including NVIDIA, Microsoft, Google (Alphabet), Amazon and Facebook (Meta).”
Despite the Russell 2000 Small Cap Index rising by 1.1% in the previous week, it decreased by 1.4% the following week.
Stonybrook suggests, “Overall, the market seems to be telegraphing lower inflation ahead as the prices of silver, gold and oil were all down on the week.
“Finally, despite another Houthi rebel attack on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, the VIX (Volatility or “Fear Index”) was also down. We think the markets are becoming conditioned to the Houthi attacks and have concluded that they are not apt to have a material impact on supply,” Stonybrook adds.
